2nd XI Win First Two Games With Maximum Points

The 2nd XI’s game away at Thornbury took place in the glorious setting of Tockington Manor School. The views were stunning and the ground was looking in good condition on a Sunny day but with a cold wind blowing across the ground.

Barrow lost the loss and Thornbury decided to put us into bat.

Jon Hood and Bernie Forge started with a few boundaries before both fell to Garner relatively cheaply. Mark Gracey, the captain, came in at number three and Jordan Allen at number four. Jordan was keeping a lot of the strike which the skipper was happy to let him have as he was looking very comfortable at the crease hitting boundaries with ease. Mark was getting little frustrated at being stuck at the other end and, trying to hit out, was caught at mid on for 13. In came Jonny Sykes and both Jonny and Jordan batted with some great fluidity before Jordan fell LBW for 71. Jonny carried on playing some good shots ably supported by Guy Fisher and Ellie Holdaway. Jonny finished with a flurry of 6’s finishing with a very respectable 76 not out. After Barrow’s 40 overs were finished the total of 232/5, was a score likely to be hard to beat.

After tea, Barrow started in the field knowing they had a good chance. Frank Forge picked up 2 wickets in his first over. The first was an easy catch at slip by Mike Lilley which turned out to be just a warm up before catching his second 2 balls later with a great reaction catch. Guy Fisher bowled tidily at the other end with figures of 0/6 off 4 overs. Frank finished his first spell with 2 for 3 off 4 overs. Mike then came on to bowl and picked up three more wickets for 7 runs off 4 overs leaving Thornbury 24/5. Ellie and James Halliday both picked up a wicket each while Oscar Livesey bowled with some decent line and length. The Thornbury skipper tried to put on a mini recovery but Frank dismissed him with the third ball of his second spell for 37 (taking 3/7 overall) before Jon Hood finished off the wicket haul, including sending a stump cart-wheeling, leaving Thornbury 77 all out.

It was a great team performance with maximum bonus points but the stars of the show were Jordan and Jonny for their 70+ innings.

This performance followed an excellent win in week one when Mark Gracey won the toss and, despite being undecided, chose to bowl with the new ball and put Frampton Cotterell in to bat, a decision which proved to be a good one.

Barrow opened the bowling with Frankie Forge and Kieron Owen. Frank bowled with his usual accuracy and off his 6 overs picked up one wicket (clean bowled) for 24 runs. Kieron was managing to get some swing from the other end picking up 2 wickets (one caught by Jordan Allen and the other caught and bowled with a diving catch).

After 6 overs each the captain switched things around and gave the ball to the club debutant Mike Lilley who had switched allegiances from Hallen and Guy Fisher. Mike will prove to be a great addition to the club with very good line and length and someone the batsmen found hard to get away (Mike picked up 2 wickets for 7 runs of 3.3 overs). Guy at the other end joined in the wicket haul with 3/13 off four overs.

Barrow’s fielding was a dramatic improvement over last season with no dropped catches (other than a really hard effort by Bernie behind the stumps) and managed two run outs finishing off Frampton for 70 all out off 20 overs.

The weather didn’t look too promising so Barrow decided to go straight back out and have tea later to try and chase them down while it was dry.

Mark Forge and Bernie opened the batting and Bernie played some lovely shots while Mark was steadily defending at the other end.

After an electrifying, edge of your seat score of 7 from Mark Forge off 14 overs (!!!) Frank judged his father to be out LBW. (Probably in revenge from the week before when Mark ran his daughter out!). Mark later said that he was scoring slowly so Bernie could try and get her 50!! Captain Gracey then came in and, with Bernie, easily finished the game off with a couple of boundaries with Bernie finishing 37 not out and Gracey 18 not out. Final score 72/1.